Hello,

Find below of a list of software updates, notes
about major changes in the JGoodies libs and apps,
the current roadmap, and license renewal information.


UPDATES
The following software updates have been published:
o Binding 1.2.0
o Looks 2.1.0
o UIF 1.7.0
o UIF Extras 1.7.0
o Swing Suite 1.7.0


IMPORTANT NOTE: To avoid duplicate and incompatible library
versions in your classpath, I recommend to remove library jars
from the Java extension directory (<jre-home>/lib/ext).
See also https://looks.dev.java.net/faq.html#3.3


CHANGES
The JGoodies Binding 1.2.0 includes a few improvements and
API extensions. The Looks 2.1 comes with improved support
for Windows Vista. The UIF 1.7 is an API cleanup and the first
step towards the JSR 296 "Swing Application Framework".
All example apps have been updated to use a new boot mechanism.
They also use a new resource organization.


DOWNLOADS
The Swing Suite 1.7.0 is available from the JGoodies
product download page; access is password protected
http://www.jgoodies.com/downloads/products.html
The separate downloads for the Binding 1.2.0 and Looks 2.1.0
will be made available this week.


ROADMAP
I plan to add a few important features to the JGoodies
open source libs, before these will moved to Java 5.
The UIF and Swing Suite example apps will be moved towards
the JSR 296 "Swing Application Framework". This shall be
done step by step, so you can choose whether you migrate
in smaller or in a larger step. The steps and development
speed depend on the progress made on the JSR 296.
Next planned updates are the Forms 1.1, Binding 1.3,
Swing Suite 1.8 - all which shall still support Java 1.4.
For more information see:
http://www.jgoodies.com/downloads/roadmap.html
I plan to publish an early preview of the Suite 1.8
later this week. To keep the traffic in this list small,
I won't announce the preview in this list. You may check
the product download page on Friday Dec 1st.


ON SWING SUITE LICENSE RENEWALS
Your Swing Suite license does not expire, and a renewal
is not necessary. However, a renewal is appreciated
to finance the maintenance and further improvements
of the Swing Suite and open source JGoodies libraries.
The focus of the Swing Suite 1.7 is in the commercial
UIF 1.7. The example apps resources have been reorganized,
their behavior changed only little.
Depending on the version you have, a renewal is more
or less interesting. Here's a table with the estimated
update importance. Importance to update from version:
1.6.1 - interesting
1.5.0 - interesting
1.4.1 - medium important
1.4.0 - medium important


HOW TO RENEW A SWING SUITE LICENSE
You can order a 1-year Swing Suite license renewal online at:
http://www.jgoodies.com/products/purchase.html
The renewal product is configured as abonnement that you can
cancel at any time, including immediately after the renewal.
I don't want to hook anybody into renewing the license.
Your initial Swing Suite purchase has already helped me
finance the JGoodies maintenance and support.


YOUR FEEDBACK
If you have questions or suggestions regarding
this mail, please post to the technical JGoodies list,
not to this low-traffic announcement list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JGoodies_unmoderated/


I hope you save time and money using the Swing Suite.
And I'm looking forward to an exciting development year
for the Swing Suite libraries and example applications.

Best regards,
Karsten Lentzsch